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Unequal Application of Travel Restrictions

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
August 12, 2013
Filed under , ,

Videoconference providers see uptick in federal demand, Washington Post
“NASA, for instance, estimates that it will reduce its travel costs by about $21 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Although not all the savings can be attributed to videoconferencing, “we do look to use that medium to allow our managers, scientists and engineers to be able to still participate in events when being there in person isn’t possible,” NASA spokesman Allan Beutel wrote in an e-mail. Last month, NASA held its first Google+ Hangout news briefing on its Interstellar Boundary Explorer satellite. It “let our scientists present the IBEX mission’s latest findings and answer questions from journalists and the public at the same time without having to travel to a certain place just to participate in the news conference,” Beutel wrote.”
Keith’s note: Just as NASA is starting to get innovative in the whole world of virtual meetings, NASA also thought it was OK to fly a bunch of JPL folks to DC to go to receptions and briefings on Capitol Hill and the White House to mark the first anniversary of Curiosity on Mars. The rules are clearly not being applied equally.
AIP Bulletin: Update on OMB Travel Restrictions, earlier post
Growing Impact of Travel Restrictions, earlier post
NASA Limits Travel; No Layoff Plans – yet (update), earlier post
Bolden Cuts Travel; Buys Toy Telescope Models, earlier post

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

11 responses to “Unequal Application of Travel Restrictions”

  1. Johnhouboltsmyspiritanimal says:
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    JPL has always been able to be part of NASA when it suits them and be independent when it offered them flexibility from NASA restrictions.

    • cynical_space says:
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      That coin has two sides. NASA has treated JPL both as a full NASA center and as an independent entity whenever it was convenient and in NASA’s favor to do so.

  2. sunman42 says:
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    The entire travel restriction craziness goes so far beyond Through the Looking Glass in unreality that I don’t think anyone could tell from its execution what motivated it. Far from saving money on travel, it has inflated travel costs by delaying approvals so that higher airfares have had to be booked than normal by contractors.

    Worse, no one I know of has been given a lower travel budget bogey, or had and funds usable for travel actually sequestered, which raises the simple question, “Why are we going through this elaborate charade?”

  3. Mudpie says:
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    Travel restrictions do not apply to contractors as they have travel money built into their contracts. JPL is a contractor for the most part.

    • cb450sc says:
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      I assure you that JPL has the travel restrictions in place, although the primary restriction is on non-CONUS travel. The travel restrictions aren’t strictly set in stone – it’s more that a lot of things that never required approval before (or at least, just local line-management approval) now require multiple layers of approval, sometimes all the way up to HQ. There’s also a lot of nonsense having to do with the color of the money. Basically, all the rules change every three weeks.

    • sunman42 says:
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      Absolutely, flat-out wrong. Grantees and CAN holders are exempt, but contractor travellers must be registered in NCTS, approved by NASA management chains with no knowledge of the work they do, have their travel “justified,” &c., &c., just like civil servants.

    • kcowing says:
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      Wrong.

  4. GentleGiant says:
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    I don’t think this is a case where the rules are being applied unequally. There are just situations when travel makes sense and situations when other approaches, like video conferencing, work almost/just as well but at a much lower cost. The trick, of course, is to figure out when it makes more sense to travel and when it makes more sense to use a cheaper solution.

    • kcowing says:
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      So …. scientists and engineers getting together to plan and review missions is not OK — but going to receptions in Washington is OK?

      • GentleGiant says:
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        I didn’t say that and didn’t mean to imply that. I don’t work for NASA and my only insight into what happens within NASA administration is what I read here, so I have no idea what logic or criteria NASA uses to justify travel spending.

        Having said that, you can’t have a party in DC if the dude with the mohawk is in Pasadena. Put differently, if flying a few staff out to DC to participate in celebrations and briefings helps get more funding for NASA then doing so is a wise investment.

  5. sshamba says:
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    The whole travel thing is one of the most counter-productive things that NASA has done. NASA as the premier engineering and science agency of the US has a duty to disseminate its discoveries. The tried and true way of doing this is publishing papers in conferences and in academic journal with the conference papers being the stepping stones for the journal papers. By restricting travel NASA is not fulfilling its duty.

    Now these conferences tend to be in nice places and NASA does not want to have an optics problem. However, many in NASA are working for less than what they would earn in the private sector because they like to do research and publish articles. However, most conferences have a “no presentation, no paper” policy. Therefore, if you can’t make it to the conference, your paper will not be published. If these researchers see that they cannot publish, they will leave NASA. I know of a young and smart JPLer who was an invited speaker at a conference. However, due to NASA travel restrictions he was prevented from going there. This was the last straw for him. He left JPL and went to Google with a guarantee by Google that he could continue his research there.

    Finally, the whole travel restriction thing is political. It serves two purposes politically. First it shows that the US government is paying attention to the fiscal problems of this country. Second it causes maximum pain to the NASA scientists and engineers so that they will go and bad mouth the bad Republicans for cutting their budget. (It was the same with cancellation of White House tours and the furloughing of air traffic controllers). Invitation of JPLers to the White House for the photo op is also political. It wants to show that the White House cares for the space program. Never mind that the Obama administration has been one of the most anti NASA administration that I have seen. I had worked for NASA for over 18 years but I left almost two years ago because there was no hope that this administration and this administrator would change its way and start supporting NASA instead of gutting it. It is interesting that many at NASA/JPL voted for Obama, hoping that he would be a pro-science guy. Needless to say, they have been sorely disappointed.

    At a time when this country sorely needs scientists and engineers, the short-sightedness of our politicians is destroying one of the greatest research institutions of this country. Shame. Shame. Shame